It’s not quite as late as it was last night when Team Coachella momentarily halted its ongoing road diary, but it might as well be. I can barely keep my head up, much less my eyes open.

There is so much to say it’s hard to know where to begin — apart from first telling you that Sly Stone did indeed perform at Coachella, on the wrong stage (Mojave not Gobi) and at the wrong time (11 instead of 7). But after babbling incoherently about legal hassles for the better part of 15 minutes, while also attempting to introduce some “new music” to the couple hundred people (at most) who primarily found out about his last-minute set via Twitter, Sly then managed to wend his way haltingly through at least a number of his classics: “Stand!,” “If You Want Me to Stay,” “Dance to the Music,” “I Want to Take You Higher” and “Thank You Falletinme Be Mice Elf (Agin).”

He also laid down on the stage looking about to croak at one point; at another, he see seemed to either get shocked by his microphone or suddenly have a seizure for a few seconds. His Mohawk tucked beneath a crazy silver frightwig and a navy blue skipper’s cap (his whole getup seemed stolen from Gorillaz‘s English-sailor wardrobe), he was bat-crap crazy the whole time … but I can’t say that some kind of bizarre Coachella history was made just by having him appear.

And his involvement strangely added some not entirely flavorful icing to what was otherwise a tremendous, even magical final day/night of this 11th Coachella. There may have been better days overall — though this Sunday greatly redeemed last year’s lackluster finale, it also didn’t have quite as much consistent punch as the Sunday 2007 reunion of Rage Against the Machine.

Yet the last stretch of Coachella 2010 was positively magnificent.

It was preceded by first-rate sets from Local Natives, Mayer Hawthorne & the County, De La Soul, Florence & the Machine (with Nathan Willett of Cold War Kids joining in), Strokes frontman Julian Casablancas (whose rendition of “Hard to Explain” was a major engine-starter with this potentially lethargic crowd) as well as Sigur Ros’ Jonsi, the festival’s chief representative from Iceland, home to the volcano that eventually kept seven acts from traveling here, some significant (Bad Lieutenant, Gary Numan), some on the rise (Delphic, Frightened Rabbit).

Right around the time Spoon settled in at sunset, serving up all of its best material in a hurry (without short-changing any of them), something began to click, though other members of our staff are convinced the turning point was Florence or Julian. That could be — but Spoon were flat-out great, confident and potent yet still filled with the same winsome quality and loose frameworks that make the Austin group’s records so charming, not just crafty.

What happened next — starting with the massive gathering on hand to see French band Phoenix finally have its long-overdue mega-moment in the States, followed by an even more superb performance from Pavement than the one they gave up the Fox, plus Thom Yorke‘s jittery solo band Atoms for Peace and the grandeur that proved to be Gorillaz — well, even seen-it-all Coachellan types must admit that this was among the very most memorable nights of music ever staged at Coachella.

But I’ll have to tell you about all that tomorrow when I wake up. I think what I’ve written here is in English — but I really can’t say for sure as my eyes are nearly closed. Bear with us, please, and we’ll be back with still more slide shows and lots more to read by midday Monday.